Midwest Home To The Drunkest Cities in US

In the world of unfortunate power rankings comes this handy compilation of the drunkest cities in US.

And don’t tell us you’re not interested…

Turns out one state in particular has seven of the top 10 drunkest cities in the US, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Wisconsin  rules when it comes to this dubious title, and no other state was even close.

The list was compiled using data from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. “Drunkenness” was measured by the percent of each city’s population that report either binge drinking or drinking heavily, which the organization defines as 4 to 5 drinks in a sitting or 15 or more drinks per week, over a 30-day period.

The study  examined county health data from 281 metro areas in the US, ranking cities by the percentage of adults that drink excessively.

24/7 Wall Street’s drunkest cities ranking also took into account the number of bars and restaurants per capita, residents’ median income, and percentage of driving deaths involving alcohol.

The study also discovered that excessive drinking rates in Wisconsin were higher outside of urban areas. In Wisconsin, 26.2% of adults drink were found to drink excessively. And Green Bay was the only metro area with a higher excessive drinking rate than the state as a whole.

Although Wisconsin dominated this unfortunate ranking, you can see that other Midwest cities held their own. Watertown-Fort Drum, NY (#16) was the only eastern city in the top 20 ranking. And it is notable that Fairbanks, Alaska , which has a significantly larger population than the majority of cities showed up at #18 in the West.

So how did your city do?

1. Green Bay, WI (26.5%)
2. Eau Claire, WI (26.2%)
3. Appleton, WI (26.2%)
4. Madison, WI (25.9%)
5. Fargo, ND-MN (25.2%)
6. Oshkosh-Neenah, WI (24.5%)
7. Missoula, MT (24.3%)
8. Grand Forks, ND-MN (24.2%)
9. Wausau, WI (24.2%)
10. La Crosse-Onalaska, WI-MN (23.8%)
11. Mankato-North Mankato, MN (23.6%)
12. Fond du Lac, WI (23.5%)
13. Iowa City, IA (23.1%)
14. Dubuque, IA (23.0%)
15. Sheboygan, WI (23.0%)
16. Watertown-Fort Drum, NY (22.9%)
17. Lincoln, NE (22.7%)
18. Fairbanks, AK (22.7%)
19. Ames, IA (22.7%)
20. Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI (22.5%)

 

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